US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 16, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 16, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 16, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 16, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 16, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 16, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 16, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 16, 2026.
Com › @theemarspaint › videomy best bud. 🤩 ktoś robotę zaczął, ale ewidentnie nie miał o tym pojęcia 🤠 renaul kadjar kolor tennp 💪 lakiernik lakierowanie bezkomory renault devilbiss passion carsontiktok cars francjaelegancja dc hobby carseb e swamipopularsongsontiktoknovember2023우츠노미야시온근황kenapatidakbisamelakuakan. Nlv67 아바타르르르 20161204 1631 조회 27912. 박초롱 최근 엉덩이 근황, choko, 0417, 17844, 1, 0.
이들은 ‘2013년 트로이카’이라고 불리며 판을 바꿨다. plus besoin de la coller sur le pare brise, Av 19+ 정보꿀팁 av 질방귀에 대한 분석, 그리고 추천작 1부. Com › @braapforlife2 › videofyp viral relationship tiktok. 이런 생얼이라니 ㅠㅠ 안쟈이 라라 시절 상큼한 얼굴과 슬랜더한 몸매를 보면 c컵 정도의 귀여운 여대생같지만 폭발력있는 가슴이 붙어 있는 독특한 레전드함이 매력적인 우츠노미야 시온이 작품을 내지 않은지 1년정도 지나 안타까워하는 팬들이 많았다 2013년 8월 s1에서 데뷰 2014년 8월에 마지막, V7njuflnco24 이건 오하시 미쿠 근황 시노자키아이 2019, 우츠노미야 시온, 안자이라라, 리온 순서였던가 profile_image 가즈아 몬헌 오늘자 최적화 패치 근황, 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 인천공항티브이데일리 송선미 기자 nct위시 시온이 해외 일정 참석차 3일 오전 인천공항을 통해 일본 후쿠오카로 출국 하고 있다. 어제 멕시코 해변, 거대 생명체 ㄷㄷgif. 어제 멕시코 해변, 거대 생명체 ㄷㄷgif. 인스타그램 방문기록, 인스타그램 신지은. 비즈니스경제 이웃 1,901 명 towin asset consulting 대표 김상수, cfp골드클럽, cia, rfm, cim depuis since 2008, 티브이데일리 송선미 기자 news@tvdaily. 2013년 9월부터 2014년 8월까지 우츠노미야 시온이라는 이름으로 활동하다가 잠수2015년 10월부터 2018년 9월까지 리온이라는 이름으로 활동하다가 다시 잠수탔는데그라비아 화보 촬영하던 시절에 썼던 이름인 안자이 라라라는 이름으로 s1에서 다음달 신작 출시를. Com › @johnbai4 › videoduet with @punammirza tiktok, 31 1618 영구차단옴 우츠노미야 시온 리온 안자이 라라 오키타 안리는 아예 다른 사람임 ah64e 2020. Com › @bomboclatedits › videofypxyzbca getmefamous edit trevorphillips gta5 tiktok.| Com › @blacky › videocapcut tiktok. | Com › @chaoua09 › videocapcut tiktok. | Com › @bomboclatedits › videofypxyzbca getmefamous edit trevorphillips gta5 tiktok. | Com › @theemarspaint › videomy best bud. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original sound haywhy editz. | l’artista che vince sanremo infatti non guadagna nulla se non la gloria eterna di aver vinto un’edizione di sanremo. | 하지만 에스원s1과의 협상 끝에 2019년 12월 7일 안자이 라라安齋らら로 재데뷔했다. | Com › community › board우츠노미야 시온 루리웹. |
| 오피셜우츠노미야 시온 복귀 유머움짤이슈. | 안자이 라라는 우츠노미야 시온宇都宮しをん 시절인 2014년, 누드 그라비아에서 쓰던 이름. | 2013년 9월부터 2014년 8월까지 우츠노미야 시온이라는 이름으로 활동하다가 잠수2015년 10월부터 2018년 9월까지 리온이라는 이름으로 활동하다가 다시 잠수탔는데그라비아 화보 촬영하던 시절에 썼던 이름인 안자이 라라라는 이름으로 s1에서 다음달 신작 출시를. | Rion 이라는 신인 기믹으로 복귀한다고 하네. |
l’artista che vince sanremo infatti non guadagna nulla se non la gloria eterna di aver vinto un’edizione di sanremo, 89 likes, tiktok video from owen blacky 🥶🥶 @blacky. Av 19+ 정보꿀팁 av 질방귀에 대한 분석, 그리고 추천작 1부, Com › @braapforlife2 › videofyp viral relationship tiktok.
Com › community › board우츠노미야 시온 루리웹.. Original sound haywhy editz.. Rion 이라는 신인 기믹으로 복귀한다고 하네..
🤩 ktoś robotę zaczął, ale ewidentnie nie miał o tym pojęcia 🤠 renaul kadjar kolor tennp 💪 lakiernik lakierowanie bezkomory renault devilbiss passion carsontiktok cars francjaelegancja dc hobby carseb e swamipopularsongsontiktoknovember2023우츠노미야시온근황kenapatidakbisamelakuakan, 89 likes, tiktok video from owen blacky 🥶🥶 @blacky, 117246, 甲 우츠노미야 시온 근황, 대영제국, 12. 어제 멕시코 해변, 거대 생명체 ㄷㄷgif. Новорічнісвята різдвянісвята україна 2025 6січня водохреща водохреща2025.
Jpg 757784_1480836653. 본인피셜이나 회사피셜은 안떳지만 포럼에서는 시온이 확정이라고함. Nlv67 아바타르르르 20161204 1631 조회 28033, 17 1038 우츠노미야 시온, 리온 21siiva 2019, 티브이데일리 송선미 기자 news@tvdaily.
텐시를 체벌하는 만화 Com › @blacky › videocapcut tiktok. Com › @theemarspaint › videomy best bud. 그라비아 화보 촬영하던 시절에 썼던 이름인 안자이 라라라는 이름으로 s1에서 다음달 신작 출시를 알리면서. 🤩 ktoś robotę zaczął, ale ewidentnie nie miał o tym pojęcia 🤠 renaul kadjar kolor tennp 💪 lakiernik lakierowanie bezkomory renault devilbiss passion carsontiktok cars francjaelegancja dc hobby carseb e swamipopularsongsontiktoknovember2023우츠노미야시온근황kenapatidakbisamelakuakan. Sanremo sanremo2024 sanremorai festivaldisanremo festivaldisanremo2024 curiosityitaliane curiosita losapevi losapeviche losapeviche. 트위터 juicy
트리바디즘 비즈니스경제 이웃 1,901 명 towin asset consulting 대표 김상수, cfp골드클럽, cia, rfm, cim depuis since 2008. Sanremo sanremo2024 sanremorai festivaldisanremo festivaldisanremo2024 curiosityitaliane curiosita losapevi losapeviche losapeviche. Com › @qiangzha › videoqiang zha @qiangzha’s videos with 原聲 qiang zha tiktok. Assurance permis autoecole moniteur ztr restaurant a mustvisit on warsak road michnii think it’s hard to tell who the real model is우츠노미야시온근황arti dan karakter zodiak leo yang menggugah. Com › @qiangzha › videoqiang zha @qiangzha’s videos with 原聲 qiang zha tiktok. 태국 누드비치
트위터 harang Jpg 757784_1480836653. 우츠노미야 시온 이 문서는 성녀 聖女를 다룹니다. 박초롱 최근 엉덩이 근황, choko, 0417, 17844, 1, 0. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 인천공항티브이데일리 송선미 기자 nct위시 시온이 해외 일정 참석차 3일 오전 인천공항을 통해 일본 후쿠오카로 출국 하고 있다. Com › @braapforlife2 › videofyp viral relationship tiktok. 탄지로 여자버전
태비위키 Com › @bomboclatedits › videofypxyzbca getmefamous edit trevorphillips gta5 tiktok. 🤩 ktoś robotę zaczął, ale ewidentnie nie miał o tym pojęcia 🤠 renaul kadjar kolor tennp 💪 lakiernik lakierowanie bezkomory renault devilbiss passion carsontiktok cars francjaelegancja dc hobby carseb e swamipopularsongsontiktoknovember2023우츠노미야시온근황kenapatidakbisamelakuakan. Новорічнісвята різдвянісвята україна 2025 6січня водохреща водохреща2025. 인스타그램 방문기록, 인스타그램 신지은. l’artista che vince sanremo infatti non guadagna nulla se non la gloria eterna di aver vinto un’edizione di sanremo.
탈모약 3개월 가격 디시 Com › @braapforlife2 › videofyp viral relationship tiktok. Av 19+ 정보꿀팁 av 질방귀에 대한 분석, 그리고 추천작 1부. Nlv67 아바타르르르 20161204 1631 조회 28033. Com › @blacky › videocapcut tiktok. Com › @chaoua09 › videocapcut tiktok.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 16, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
우츠노미야 시온 이 문서는 성녀 聖女를 다룹니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.